WASHINGTON — The Syrian opposition, defeated several times by
President Bashar Assad’s military, intends to reorganize in what is
expected to result in new leadership.

The opposition was to reassess policy and its leadership at a
meeting in Turkey on March 22.

Joshua Landis, a U.S. professor and director of SyriaComment, said
that opposition leaders would embrace the Sunni revolt against the
Assad regime. Landis, regarded as close to the State Department, said
the Muslim
Brotherhood-aligned Syrian National Council was undergoing a “period
of soul searching and transformation” in wake of the defeats in Homs
and Idlib.

“Opposition leaders on the ground, those who are actually fighting
the regime, have already become more militant and Islamized,” Landis
said. “If the SNC doesn’t scramble to catch up, it will become
irrelevant.”

Landis outlined Syrian opposition strategy as maintaining guerrilla
warfare in an attempt to place Assad’s forces on the defensive. This
would include bombings, assassinations and abductions of those
aligned with the regime. At a later stage, he said, the rebels could
assault Assad’s military
and security forces and try to capture parts of Syria.

“The Syrian opposition prematurely tried to hold territory and take on
the Syrian Army,” Landis said. “This was a bad and costly mistake.”

“There is no council,” Kamal Labwani, an SNC leader who quit in
mid-March, said. “It’s an illusion.”

SNC has been criticized for the defeat of the rebels in such provinces
as Homs and Idlib in March. The council has been accused by critics as
autocratic and refusing to build a coalition with secular or liberal
opposition groups.

SNC chairman Burhan Ghalioun is expected to be the casualty of the new
opposition strategy. Ghalioun and his allies in the council opposed
the
militarization of the civilian drive against Assad, particularly the
Free
Syrian Army.

A high-level Syrian defector, identified as Abdul Majid Barakat, has
disclosed official documents that reflect Assad’s anxiety over the
revolt.
The documents, relayed to Qatar’s A-Jazeera satellite channel,
included
directives to security forces to crush protests in Aleppo, Damascus
and
Idlib as well as measures to stop defections.

“However security chiefs paint a beautiful picture in their reports,”
Barakat said. “They ignore many substantial facts on the ground
simply to
boost the president’s morale.”

Farid Ghadry, head of the Reform Party in Syria, agreed. Ghadry cited
reports of Russian special operations forces being sent to Syria in
late
March as rebel forces attacked Aleppo and Damascus. Russian sources
said the
Kremlin was seeking to protect its estimated 200,000-member community
in
Syria.